Bodies in an alleged collective grave in Daraa, the town at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months.
Mass grave in Syria protest hub
DAMASCUS, May 16, (Agencies): Syria’s brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protests took a chilling turn Monday with the discovery of a mass grave in Daraa, the town at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months, an activist said.
A witness, meanwhile, said corpses and wounded people were lying on the streets of Tall Kalakh, a besieged western town.
Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, told AFP by telephone that the grim find in Daraa, which has been sealed off for nearly a month, was made after the army allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours daily.
“They discovered a mass grave in the old part of town but authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent residents from recovering the bodies, some of which they promised would be handed over later,” Qurabi said on the phone from Cairo.
He was unable to say how many bodies were found in the mass grave.
His account could not be independently verified as Syrian authorities have prevented journalists from traveling to cities and towns across the country to report on the unprecedented protests threatening the authoritarian rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
Qurabi said that 34 people had also been killed in the past five days in the towns of Jassem and Inkhil, near Daraa.
“I fear that dozens more casualties may be lying in nearby wheat fields and orchards because families have not been able to access the region which is encircled by security troops and snipers,” he said.
In Tall Kalakh, the western town besieged by the army, a witness told AFP of corpses and wounded people left lying in the streets, with local residents unable to recover them because of shelling and heavy gunfire.
He said many corpses were also being kept in refrigerated trucks at the local hospital pending burial.
“I can see six tanks from where I am right now,” said the man, who wished to remain anonymous.
“There are many more parked in front of the main bakery and the Othman ibn Affan mosque in the center of town,” he added, as gunfire rattled in the background.
Another witness earlier said that at least 10 people had been killed on Sunday in Tall Kalakh with hundreds of local residents fleeing, many of them to nearby Lebanon.
Shelling and shooting was also reported in the nearby town of Arida, an activist told AFP.
Syrian television, meanwhile, reported that two soldiers had been killed and 11 injured by “gangsters” in Tall Kalakh at the weekend.
Security forces have sought to prevent the unrest from spreading across the country by systematically laying siege to towns and cities where anti-regime protests have been held.
More than 850 people, including women and children, have been killed in the unrest and at least 8,000 arrested, according to rights groups.
Syria has blamed the violence on “armed terrorist gangs” backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.
Hundreds of those arrested were released on Sunday after signing pledges not to take part in further protests, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Several of them said they had been tortured,” he said, adding that thousands of people remained jailed and more arrests were taking place.
The United States and European Union have responded to the unrest in Syria by imposing sanctions on members of Assad’s inner circle but stopped short of targeting him personally.
There are fears that should Assad’s regime fall, that would have serious ramifications for the region and could lead to civil war.
At least 15 Syrian tanks pushed overnight into a rural area near the Lebanese border, where security forces have concentrated their latest crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrations, human rights activists said.
The activists, who were in contact with residents, said the tanks deployed around Arida, near the Jisr al-Qomar border crossing point with northern Lebanon. Witnesses on the Lebanese side of the border told Reuters they could hear the sound of gunfire throughout the night.
Syrians fleeing their homeland described a “catastrophic” scene Monday in a besieged border town that has been largely sealed off as the army tries to crush a two-month uprising.
At least eight people were killed Sunday in Talkalakh — the most recent casualties from a government crackdown that already has killed 850 people nationwide since mid-March, according to the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. A town of about 70,000 residents, Talkalakh has been under a military siege since last week.
“The situation in the city is catastrophic,” said Ahmad, 55, who crossed the border into Lebanon overnight Monday and asked to be identified only by his first name.
“If you walk in the streets of Talkalakh you can smell the dead bodies,” he said.
A human rights activist says eight people have been killed because of violence in a Syrian border town where witnesses reported hearing crackling gunfire and explosions.
Mustafa Osso said Monday that six people were killed in Talkalakh on Sunday and two others — including a soldier — died in Lebanon after crossing the border for treatment.
He said military operations were continuing in the town on Monday.
Hundreds of people have been fleeing into Lebanon to escape a harsh crackdown against anti-government protests. Human rights groups say more than 800 people have been killed since mid-March.
Few reports were leaking out of Talkalakh because Syrian troops have isolated the city and cut telephone lines.
A British official says Syrian President Bashar Assad could eventually be referred to the International Criminal Court alongside Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
The court’s prosecutor said Monday he had asked judges to issue arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son and the country’s intelligence chief for deliberately targeting civilians during the crackdown on rebels.
A British defense minister, Nick Harvey, told British legislators he believed it was likely the court would in the future seek to charge Assad over Syria’s violent crackdown on protests.
He said the court was “highly likely to arrive at a similar conclusion” in the case of Assad as it had over Gaddafi.
Britain has so far not called for Assad to step down, but has demanded his regime halts its violence.
Source: Arab Times Online - May 16, 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment